Forest of Fears: Take a Journey ... If You Dare

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Ed and Carol Bowers sing gospel music. Willy Pierce umpires youth baseball. Rick Webb volunteers in the service of children.
Family and friendship tie them together.
And so does Halloween.
When each September fades into October you can find them in the woods. They operate Forest of Fears, which runs now through Halloween weekend, near South Holston Dam just off Rt. 421 in Bristol, Tenn. Proceeds benefit a variety of local organizations, including South Holston Baseball.
Good people, good scares, good cause.
“It is a blast,” said Webb. “These woods get pitch black and there’s people all over these woods.”
Scary people. Try folks with twisted faces. Razor sharp and blood splattered teeth. Spooky skeletons. Just open wide your imagination and have a hoot for Halloween.
“They love to spook you up,” said Ed Bowers, 58, who along with his wife Carol serve as guides through the Forest of Fears. They said sometimes the more simple scares provide the best scares.
“Willy’s son was crawling under a piece of plastic (near where they walked). Just a simple thing,” Ed Bowers said. “‘That thing is a moving!’ one of them said. Buddy, they like to tore the place up.”

INTO THE WOODS
Darkness fell. The sunless sky draped a cloak of black on the evening as folks gathered at the gates of Forest of Fears on Wednesday night.
Then Webb appeared at the gate, beside which a wooden coffin spoke volumes.
“Now, y’all hold onto your ticket,” Webb instructed a group of 10 hearty souls lined up and ready for scares. “We can use that as your toe tag in case something happens.”
A girl of about 10 looked at her neighbor with wide eyes. Ed and Carol Bowers then greeted the group. Dressed in funeral black robes and wickedly realistic masks, they commenced the slow parade of willing patrons into the depths of darkness.
GEAR FOR FEAR
Several hours before nightfall brothers Willy and Garland Pierce along with a dozen or so family and friends prepared for Wednesday night’s frights. Costumes were gathered and laid out. Props positioned just so.
“We plan all year for this,” Willy Pierce said. “It’s a family thing. We sit around the Thanksgiving table talking this over, about what worked and what needs work for next year.”
Forest-thumping music from Rob Zombie played. A severed “leg” rested nearby. Leaves and branches crunched underfoot of a motley cast of characters in various stages of costume as they transformed themselves and the forest for fear.
Garland Pierce introduced himself.
“I’m the Jackal from the movie “13 Ghosts,” he said.
Those who brave Forest of Fears will receive an entirely different greeting from him. Subsequent crowd reactions vary from amusement to surprise to downright fear.
“I came out at a woman one time last year and she looked down and there was a puddle under her feet,” Willy Pierce said, whose character bears a look that even a mother wouldn’t love.
Garland Pierce grinned at the memory.

CHAINSAW CHARLIES
Here’s how.
Back into the woods.
Guides Ed Bowers led and his wife Carol anchored the group. He spoke like a haunted funeral director, in a low and resonant voice reminiscent of Boris Karloff.
“They’ll think, ‘God, if they’re like this out here then what kind of mess will be in there, in the woods,’” Ed Bowers said.
Imagine revving chainsaws in the hands of gnarly-faced humans turned to monsters. Wild filled theirs eyes as screams flew from the mouths of those in the group. Unseen objects moved in the dungeon-dark woods. From right to left and high and low, in front and from behind surprises awaited the unsuspecting.
“I love watching the expressions on their faces,” Carol Bowers said.
SCARES FOR CHARITY
Forest of Fears began three years ago as a vehicle for fun and cause. Proceeds culled from sales of tickets and concessions go to local organizations geared to help children.
Webb said last year’s Forest of Fears raised about $5,500 after expenses for charity.
“We hope to double that this year,” Webb said. “We hope to raise $12,000 to $15,000 this year.”
After such expenses as insurance and costume upgrades and acquisitions, Forest of Fears will donate the remainder to local organizations including the Outdoors Club of Bluff City Middle School and Sullivan East High School, South Holston Baseball, the South Holston Ruritan Club, and the American Cancer Society.
“If it will help some little young’un, I’m there,” Ed Bowers said.

REAL GHOSTS?
As for the woods of Forest of Fears, genuine ghosts may be there, said Robin Kegley, whose three sons and daughter-in-law are among the characters in Forest of Fears.
She took a batch of photographs there last Sunday.
“I was just taking pictures and having fun,” Kegley said. “Then I saw the orbs.”
Those who seek paranormal phenomena – ghost hunters – believe that orbs are spirits or ghosts in the form of tightly wound balls of energy. Orbs oftentimes escape the naked eye. However, they sometimes appear in photography.
“I knew exactly what it was when I saw them,” Kegley said, photos in hand. “When I looked through the pictures I saw the orbs, and one was right beside my granddaughter Emma.”
Spot on a photo perhaps?
“It’s a spirit,” she said. “I kind of think it was a good spirit. We’ve had a lot of death in my family. To me, it was someone watching over Emma.”
Then again, Willy Pierce suggested another theory.
“There’s a Civil War graveyard right over there,” Pierce said, with a wave of his arm toward Rooty Branch Road.

SCARES FROM SATAN
Meanwhile back in the woods.
Without giving too much away, at some point within the journey into Forest of Fears patrons will encounter Satan. Darryl Pierce, Willy and Garland’s uncle and Carol Bowers’ brother, plays Satan.
“When people see him,” Willy Pierce said, “they are so transfixed.”
Indeed they were on Wednesday night. That wide-eyed girl of about 10, the one who eased with care as the tour began, now reached for another’s arm to hold while screaming her lungs raw.
“The reactions of people is what makes it fun,” Darryl “Satan” Pierce said beforehand. “Basically, they just want to get away. One guy was out of here like a bat out of hell.”
That girl sure was ready to move on down the line, too.
“At Satan’s, once they start screaming you better move on or they’ll run right over the back of your feet,” Ed Bowers said.
Then there’s a journey through an asylum, a meeting with The Jackal, and well, more that doesn’t exactly go bump in the night. Screams and howls in the night are more like it.
“It really is fun,” Carol Bowers said. “Especially on Halloween night.”

IF YOU GO
What: Forest of Fears
When: Oct. 20-23, 27-30 from dark to 11 p.m. and Oct. 24-25, 31 and Nov. 1 from dark to midnight
Where: South Holston Forest of Fears, 419 Meadow Creek Rd., Bristol, Tenn. (take Virginia Ave. to Hwy. 421; turn right on Emmett Rd. at the former Shelley’s Chicken House; turn left when road forks and go past the water plant; at end of plant property turn right on Meadow Creek Rd.)
Admission: $7 adults, $4 children ages 12 and under; $5 per person for groups of 10 or more
Info: (423) 538-5895
Web: http://www.myspace.com/shfieldoffears

TOM NETHERLAND is a freelance writer. He can be reached at .